I watched online via various methods the student protests, watching twitter, facebook, the news sites and even parliment channel following the progress of what was being done for the cause of student fees.
There are a lot of sides being spoken but I’m not sure which was the stronger view in reality. Students, all stood together in protest but there.
I don’t agree with the violence but think it is right that people can voice their opinions. There have been hundreds of thousands of people opposing the fee changes but they seem to have been ignored all the same.
I saw a lot of violence on TV within the protests. Many people causing riots and I think getting a publics view that the students are wrong and should be made to pay… but I see it a different way…
What better way to dis-credit a movement than to join in, then cause violence and disturbance gaining great publicity. People don’t look at the thousands of protesters peacefully doing what they do but the few that cause the havoc. I’ve heard the media speak that there are many in the few but even 0.5% of 50,000 is still around 250 People.
The government MPs are meant to speak on behalf of the people they represent. It has been shown in parliment on the 9th December 2010 that many of the Lib Dem MPs chose to ignore their people and follow others.
I guess everyone has a choice, and I think next election many will not trust the lib dems as they have prooven that they can not be trusted to follow some of the basic promises they made pre-election.
I am glad that I have already been through the student part of life, with university so this doesn’t directly affect me in life at the moment. Maybe in the future it will but at the moment, not so much.
It will affect a LOT of my friends, and a lot of friends children. I have many friends with teenage children that now that are unlikely to get to university now.
When I got out of university I had around £7,000 in student loan debts which is a lot especially with it so hard to get a job and all this is getting ever increasing interest. I recall it took me over a year to get any real time job.
I worked all over the place – over 40 different organisations through temp work in agencies. At first I could get nothing – they told me I was over qualified to work a temp job – my thoughts – I need money to pay for life and its a temp job. Its not a career move here. So I did allsorts from a production line job, to lots of admin work and data entry – all on a low wage.
But to think that I’d need to pay back somehow £9,000 per year? That would be impossible I think. I don’t think I’d have even gone. I don’t think I could afford to send anyone else there either. It works out over £170 per week, every week, and on top of that there is all the rates like rent, food, books, equipment, aswell as transport.
I don’t know about you, but 3 years for a standard university education with the posibility of a degree at the end for over £27,000 – Probably closer to £50,000 after adding in all living costs. How long would it take to pay that back, not including all the interest on top of it?
At around £160 per month it would take 25 years to pay it back (No interest charged) or over £400 a month for about 10 years. Its like having an extra mortgage to pay back for how you have learned things.
Seems expensive but what is the price for education. I always though education was meant to be free – everyone is free to learn. Seems the freedom doesn’t count for money.
Your views? Does it affect you? Does it affect people you know?